As I've said elsewhere on this web site, I'm not into lists. Other people
do it far better than I can. I know people. I know what's good, and here is a
small collection of the links to folks and organizations who will connect you
with others who are like-minded. I ask those who know of other resources not to
be offended if I don't include you or them. I simply don't have the time.
Check back every now and then...I may add a link or two.

An excellent, high-powered
page on mediation and negotiation as a skill. Mediation has become way too
specialized over the past two decades. It didn't have to go that way, but once
the legal profession, speducators and professional trainers got ahold of it,
something not necessarily good happened to the idea of folks using plain old
common sense to resolve their differences. My mediation history goes back to
the Harvard Project, still going strong today. I am still an inveterate
generalist, and have deliberately chosen to stay away from becoming a specialist
in ever-narrowing categories of mediation. I am interested in folks picking up
the tools of negotiation and deal making -- an ordinary part of life
except for most of us with Asperger Syndrome. We can learn them too.

Two Inclusion-Oriented U.S. AS Adult Supportive
Regional Organizations

The Asperger Association of
New England is one of this country's oldest and most successful "integrative
organizations" that serves the needs of AS adults as well as it does children.
Based in the Boston suburbs, it's the home organization of my friend and
colleague Stephen Shore.

An Ambitious Inclusion-Oriented National Organization,
primarily East Coast Oriented

This New York based
national organization has an excellent web site and links to many adult-oriented
resources. Its board of directors and movers and shakers must be on the
autistic spectrum. A mixed blessing, but one that seems to work well for
Michael John Carley, GRASP's Executive Director.

Absolutely the finest
trainers in the field in Canada and the US, associates of this special
organization created and contiue to set the gold standard for person-centered
planning (PCP) and inclusion. Bad PCP has gotten a bad rap because most of the
folks supposedly doing it are inept, manipulative, and not true believers. They
talk the talk but don't walk the walk. Not these guys. You haven't experienced
the real, deep values of person-centered work unless you've been directly
touched by training with Jack Pierpoint, Connie Lyle O'Brien, her husband John
O'Brien, and the rest of the Marsha Forest Centre crew.

The Best Person Who
Understands that Our Behavior is Communication: David Pitonyak, Ph.D.

David Pitonyak, Ph.D., is a
special, rare find in the field of behavioral psychology. He began his training
in the traditional way, in institutions. He now works on broken institutions
and in healing the souls of those broken by such places, their inmates (we now
call them "residents") and their keepers (now called "care giving
professionals"). A dedicated student of Herbert Lovett's philosophy, David has
taken a profound understanding of people and institutions with difficult
behaviors to an extremely high level. Once you've heard him speak and tell his
stories, you'll be hooked. You will never again accept the unacceptable.

AUTCOM, considered by many
mainstream professionals in the "autism industry" as an organization of
humanistic upstarts, kooks, and wizards, this remarkable, small national
organization "gets it." It really does. Nuzzle up to a member of this
organization, and you'll never think the same way about autism ever
again.

Autism/Asperger
Publishing Company, is a well-managed, growing publishing house that's
captured the titles and the imagination of many newer American authors in the
field of child and adult autistic concerns. Keith Myles, its owner, is without
question the best all-around AS book distributor in the United States,
regardless of whether the title he's hawking is his or not. He also puts on a
bang-up books and publications booth at major conferences.

Jessica Kingsley
Publishers is my publisher. Simply put, she has the most comprehensive
current and back list of titles in the business, extending into fields of direct
interest to human services professionals working with children, adolescents and
adults. Her books have three things going for them not true of any other
publisher: (1) They are always affordable. (2) Kingsley selects
authors who write well. She doesn't hand-hold clear thinkers who happen to
be awful writers. She wants them to have both skills, and it shows in the high
quality of her publications. (3) Kingsley is a consummate businesswoman. She
has the best international distribution of any specialty publisher, and
isn't afraid to shell out the big bucks to have her titles available on every
major "to the trade" publisher's index. If she's printed it or sells it, you
can find it.

A "Best Single Stop" Organization with Scads of
Information about Asperger Syndrome

I'm sorry folks, but the
Brits have it all over us. The United Kingdom's National Autistic Society has a
web site, substantive articles and some social thinking far more advanced than
the Autism Society of America's web site and its board of directors. That's why
I've listed the Brits here, and not us Ameruhcans. Yes, as a society, the
English have problems with disability rights and inclusion, but they "get
Asperger Syndrome" far better than we do with our principal national autism
organization.

Janet Norman-Baine's
Oops...Wrong Planet Syndrome! web site is far and away the most
comprehensive meta-site for all things Asperger Syndrome and autistic. She's
the biggest collector of informational ephemera in the business, but she's a
solid web mistress, utterly dedicated to sweeping all corners of the Internet on
a regular basis. She plays no favorites.

Simply put, if not for Tony
Attwood as our Johnny Appleseed Asperger Syndrome would still probably be just
299.80 in the DSM-IV. Tony generously acknowledges the contributions of others
to this crowded field, but in my book he's the firstest and the bestest. Of
special interest to the research types who've gotten this far into my web site
is Tony's brief summaries of major academic journal articles and research
reports. While still leading the pack, Tony stays abreast of best and promising
practices, something that involves a lot of reading. Attwood does not rest on
his laurels. As others have crowded into the "kid and adolescent" field, Tony's
moved, strongly, into addressing adult issues. After all, Penny, his sister,
isn't getting any younger, and I have the feeling that in addition to the
encouragement of Lorna Wing when he was a student in England, Penny's life has
provided Tony with the juice to stay with common sense and keep his eyes on the
prize: a high and dignified quality of life for all of us.

Two Sites Dear to My Heart

I co-founded one, and have
been an active list serv poster and article contributor to both....

ASPIRES is the
widest-range-of-thinking on the web site dedicated to understanding Asperger
Syndrome as an adult relational phenomenon. Founder and web mistress of the
ASPIRES web site is Linda Newland, my buddy, one gutsy lady and a friend since
we both met on a parents of AS kids discussion list 1997. Linda doesn't shy
away from carrying controversial articles, so don't expect pablum and always
good times when accessing the articles and links she features on the site.
ASPIRES has a great discussion group list serv.

Oregon Parents United, a
web site and discussion list serv, was one of this country's first "home grown"
special education parent assistance web sites. Linda Newland and I co-founded
it in 1998. It may not be as complete as other national organization-maintained
web sites, but it has articles and links those other sites wouldn't dream of
carrying.